August 2011: QEP Goals and Outcomes

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The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is designed to improve the critical thinking skills of students across the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC). Formulating goals and learning outcomes are essential elements in the development of the QEP, and the goals and outcomes in this article reflect our current appraisal of the situation.

The topic of our QEP is CARE – Critically Appraise Relevant Evidence. Through CARE, our students will learn to apply evidence-based decision making and critical thinking skills in their chosen field. The following goals and outcomes are the overarching goals and outcomes that apply to all TAMHSC components. Each component will write specific student learning outcomes that apply to their courses and programs.

As the QEP is developed over the next few months, these goals and outcomes will be used as the basis for curriculum development and implementation plans. Circulating the information at this time has two benefits. It gives the entire health science center community the opportunity to view the QEP Planning Committee’s current thinking on this important matter, and it opens a forum for comment and discussion of this topic.

As you read these goals and learning objectives, several relevant issues should come to mind:

What aspects of critical thinking and evidence-based decision making would you like to learn more about?

In what ways will we address these goals and outcomes in our curricula?

What are the most effective ways to teach these concepts to our students and to assess their learning?